From

OCCUPY WALL STREET: November 15th NYPD Raid on Zuccotti Park, November 16th, and November 17th Day of Action

From Daily News City Hall reporter Reuven Blau:

A City Councilman arrested by police during the raid on Zuccotti Park said he was tackled to the floor and unfairly detained for hours.

“I did not provoke the NYPD,” Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan) told reporters gathered in front of City Hall Wednesday morning. His left eye was visibly bruised and cut.

It all started when he raced to the area after one of the protestors in the park told him about the amped-up police presence.

Rodriguez said his wife specifically warned him not to get arrested because they planned to check out schools for their five-year-old daughter in the morning.

“I told my wife I would see what was going on,” he recalled.

About three blocks from the park, Rodriguez said he was walking on Broadway when he ran into a line of officers.

“I told them I’m Councilman Rodriguez,” he said. “Immediately, a group of police officers started pushing me back.”

As he tried to cross the street, an officer jumped from the middle of the street and forced him to the ground, Rodriguez said.

He was taken to 1 Police Plaza in a van with eight other people who had been arrested, including two who identified themselves as reporters.

The others were taken inside but Rodriguez says he was forced to wait in the van for two hours.

“Why was I left?” he asked.

His lawyers and Council colleagues said they were unable to speak or meet with him while in custody.

“We spent 13 hours trying to see our client,” his attorney Leo Glickman said. Rodriguez was released at 8 p.m. last night. He was charged with resisting arrest and obstructing government administration.

The court complaint said he tried to force his way past a police barricade and attempt to evade handcuffing.